Home Audio Question--->rear speakers
 

I have a pioneer home system for my room that has outputs for rear speakers. I tested them with a pair of old speakers I had in my house and the out put was quiet on the rear speaker channel while the main ones were still loud.

Thinking that it was maybe those old speakers, I went and bought the Bose 161 speakers and hooked them up. Those were queit aswell but playing around with the settings on the stereo its fine but still not as loud. They put out more of the instrument sounds and certain effect than the voices.

Is there a reason why the rear speaker output is quiet on the system? Is it like this for all systems?


http://images.sympatico.springbox.ca/thumbs/0/257.jpg

Those speakers look like they are for a home theater system, notice the CD. A regular stereo receiver can have an additional set of outputs for another set of speakers in another room.

A true home theater 5.1 system will have 6 amps for driving six speakers. There is a separate decoder to provide the signals.

So, tell us about your receiver.

On any true 5.1 or better "home theatre" receiver, the rear channel is only used for effects, however if you're playing a CD or other musical source, only the front "stereo" stage is used. To get use out of the rear speakers for music, you'll need a SACD or DVD-Audio player and disc.

Play around with the sound field modes on your reciever. Look for something like Hall or Church or Club. THe different modes send different amount of information to the rear channels. But most recievers have some setting that results in something like quad sound.

yes I had to play around with the effects on the receiver to get them to be louder. Basically they are used for more "fill".


The receiver is a Pioneer 280 watt home mini system.

The purpose of rear or side speakers in a 5.1 - 7.1 theater setup is to simulate sound bouncing off the walls. The effect makes the walls seem farther away and the room bigger.

Most Dolby Digital setups have an internal signal that is used to callibrate the volume from each speaker and the distance away from the listener.

Probably a dumb question, but are your front speakers offering the same load as the rears (i.e., are both pairs 8-ohm or are the fronts 4-ohm units while the rears are 8)? If so, the fronts will play much louder (assuming speaker efficiency is about the same).

Actually its uncommon to find non-8-ohm consumer home speakers, but it does happen. Also, only the most robust amps bode well with mismatched speaker loads.

And as previously mentioned, most HT recievers have a way to adjust signal levels to each speaker in the system...still, there is little to no signal in stereo mode, and as rear fill, very dependent on the encoded DVD material, be it Dolby, DTS, or THX.

The bose rear speakers are rated at 8ohms. Not sure about the main front speakers but it does sound surround!:D